1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device that includes an IC chip, and an information processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a spread in non-contact integrated circuit (IC) cards and in information processing devices that can perform communications without contact with a reader/writer, such as mobile telecommunication devices, including mobile telephones, with built-in modularized non-contact IC cards as IC chips, or the like (see Japanese Patent Application Publication JP-A-10-020780). Transceiving systems using these information processing devices are found in a wide range of applications, such as station ticket barrier systems, payment systems or the like.
With the above-mentioned ticket barrier systems or retail outlet payment systems or the like, for example, when a reader/writer connected to a cash register in the store is scanned by an information processing device with a built-in IC chip, the information stored on the IC chip relating to the amount of money is read via the electro-magnetic field generated by the reader/writer, and the information relating to the amount of money following payment is written out. This system allows the consumer to receive a service for the purchase of products.
In line with improved IC chip performance, more advanced services can be offered. Therefore, data being handled in the future will be more complex and be larger in volume. As a result, shortages are expected to occur in the free memory space available on IC chips.
To avoid shortages in the free memory space on IC chips, consideration could be given to the development of IC chips with a large-capacity memory. However, an increase in chip size and rising costs prove to be major obstacles in the manufacture of IC chips with a large-capacity memory.
Here, as a possible measure to avoid shortages in the free memory space available on IC chips at a comparatively low cost, a storage medium, such as a memory or the like, that can be externally connected to an IC chip can be newly attached, in order to expand the storage space. This design is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication JP-A-10-020780.